


Epigraph

by emrisemrisemris



Category: Declare - Tim Powers
Genre: Gen, I Don't Even Know, Poetry, homage??, parody??, who knows - Freeform, with apologies to Sir Henry Newbolt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-01
Updated: 2019-02-01
Packaged: 2019-10-20 13:53:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17623607
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emrisemrisemris/pseuds/emrisemrisemris
Summary: Inspired by DECLARE and Sir Henry Newbolt's poem "Vitai Lampada" (the one that starts "There's a breathless hush in the Close tonight ...")I've always loved the threads of poetry running through Tim Powers' work, and this is a very small homage to that.





	Epigraph

There's a breathless weight on the Île tonight,  
And a dizzying song on the buzzing wire;  
The stars wheel drunk in the moonless height,  
And the days are short and the dreams afire;  
And it's not for the sake of an ailing King,  
Or a sceptred isle or a world made free,  
But the vows that decade to decade ring -  
Return, return, and so will we.

The sand of the desert is mirror black,  
Black as the bones of the next who dies;  
The stars rock round in the ancient track,  
A burning wheel with a thousand eyes;  
The ice is cracked on the chasm of years,  
And England's far, and honour a lie;  
But the deed is done and the endgame nears,  
And over the mountain the voices die.

This is the horror that exiled rules  
While under Moskva the stones are set;  
Close as a shadow with teeth for jewels,  
For the blood of the covenant is constant yet -  
But the traitor's taken his dying breath,  
And the hungry grave lays the shrapnel bare;  
And it all folds up in the shape of death,  
Returning to dust and ash and air.


End file.
